It can be seen that, in general, the greatest drops in numbers of clusters with multiple identifiers occurred for identifiers which are recognised to change little, such as forename (in contrast to surname, which changes on marriage), For NHS number, and less in poor quality identifiers (such as hospital number, which is often not unique in our hospital).
In a classical, probabilistic approach, after similarities between identifiers (such as surnames, forenames, and so on) have been computed using functions such as the Levenhstein distance[ 5] and Jaro-Winkler functions [ 4], Bayesian classification is used to discern likely matches[ 6].
We also removed (eliminated from the string identifier) certain patterns, such as the forename "BABY".
Hyde had asked Ward to proofread this history, but the book was published without Ward's corrections errors remained, such as Masereel's forename given as "Hans", and a listing of only four of Ward's six wordless novels.
The Lexicon used in this study is a Welsh-specific list of alternative forenames, based on variants in the registered name given by persons listed on the NHSAR, such as Betty, Elsie, Liz, etc. for Elizabeth.
These would include 'purpose built' identifiers, such as hospital numbers, but also identifiers comprising high-cardinality combinations of personal data (surname, forename, home telephone number), or (surname, forename, date of birth).
Such as? "Such as [Alan] Shearer.
